


Amnesia

by edna_blackadder



Category: The Avengers (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-21
Updated: 2009-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-07 08:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/746328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edna_blackadder/pseuds/edna_blackadder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-'Forget-Me-Knot,' Peter has partial amnesia. So does Emma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amnesia

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to sarcasticsra for the beta.

‘Emma?’ he asks hesitantly, when she finally tears her eyes from Steed’s window, which she does only because they’ve driven too far and she can no longer see it. ‘I’m sorry, but there’s a lot I don’t remember.’

‘They told me about your amnesia,” she replies carefully. She’s surprised to learn she can talk. ‘What do you remember?’

‘I remember you,’ he answers vaguely. ‘I remember bits and pieces of our life together, but I can’t get the full picture. It’s the same with my childhood. I remember my parents, where I went to school, but it’s all like a dream, unclear.’

This is real, not like Sean Mortimer. She can’t just sit Peter down and gently quiz him until his memories return. This is no drug. Fate, Emma thinks, is the cruelest diabolical mastermind of all.

The worst part is that she’s secretly relieved she can’t fix it. It’s better this way, because they’re on an equal footing. She remembers Peter and she remembers their marriage, but she does not remember their love.

They did have love. Emma Knight would never have married for anything less, but she had never known anything more. What she shared with Peter qualified as love, but what she shared with Steed was a love so powerful she couldn’t find adequate words for it. She had never given much thought to the notion of soulmates, but she and Steed truly were each other’s other halves.

She remembers every moment they shared with pristine clarity. Her life before they met is blurry, unreal. Her life after their parting is the same. She doesn’t retain anything Peter says or even anything she says. Emptiness is all she feels, and Steed is all she thinks about.

Desperate for distraction, she returns to university to resume her stalled DPhil. It does distract her, but it doesn’t stimulate her. She loves physics, but it isn’t espionage.

When a woman named Marisol comes to the door looking for Peter, Emma feels alive as she hasn’t been in months, listening to him confess how she found him, nursed him back to health and, so help him, stole his heart for good, how he couldn’t bear to tell her when he woke up one morning and remembered that he already had a wife.

The next day, Peter and Marisol leave for Peru. Emma drives them to the airport and bids them a fond, heartfelt farewell.

The day after that, she summons the courage to show up at Steed’s flat.

The day after that, they save the world.


End file.
